When I released the component, I was aware that the fallback that is used with "Prefer playing track" was bound to lead to some confusion. Furthermore I decided not to follow the behavior of the existing selection viewers exactly to make it possible to view information about the playing track instead of the selection.

As the fall back in "prefer playing track" is similar to the automatic mode of columnsUi's viewers the confusion is existent but not so big like the other fall back in selection mode because the first one can offer a desirable behavior whereas the first one just irritates. Especially when using two displays in two different modes that can drive you crazy. Can you estimate how are the chances that Peter will add a "now playing" mode for his viewers and if he then would favorize the three-source-mode as well? In my eyes consistency should be an important aim.

I quite like the idea to use three source modes, so I'll definitely consider that for a future version. It still does not solve the problem completely. It would be good to have a visual indication of the current source that does not require the user to write more title formatting code.* Of course, this would be optional but enabled by default. The big question is then how this indicator should look like. Not only should it be easy to recognize while not distracting the user too much from the actual content, it should also work with all color schemes.

Sorry, i am not sure what you mean! If you mean an indication in display without using conditional syntax (please correct me if that is wrong) the simplest would be an checkbox-option "Show Caption for Source mode". If enabled the first line would show depending of state 1)"Now Playing" or 2)"Selection" or 3)"Automatic (Now playing)" resp. "Automatic (Selection)". Such headings may be helpful for users that likes to use just one display and control the source by context menu. In my case such indications wouldn't be necessary as i like to use more dislays so that would orientate myself on the position or tabs of the textdisplays. But as already said, i am not sure if you really meant that at all.

As the fall back in "prefer playing track" is similar to the automatic mode of columnsUi's viewers the confusion is existent but not so big like the other fall back in selection mode because the first one can offer a desirable behavior whereas the first one just irritates. Especially when using two displays in two different modes that can drive you crazy.

You actually have confused me here. Which fallback behavior is the one you find confusing? And what do you mean by "selection mode"?

Sorry, i am not sure what you mean! If you mean an indication in display without using conditional syntax (please correct me if that is wrong) the simplest would be an checkbox-option "Show Caption for Source mode". If enabled the first line would show depending of state 1)"Now Playing" or 2)"Selection" or 3)"Automatic (Now playing)" resp. "Automatic (Selection)". Such headings may be helpful for users that likes to use just one display and control the source by context menu. In my case such indications wouldn't be necessary as i like to use more dislays so that would orientate myself on the position or tabs of the textdisplays. But as already said, i am not sure if you really meant that at all.

No, I was actually thinking about a non-textual indicator, which among other things has the disadvantage that it could be scrolled out of view. I was thinking more along the lines of watermark like in the image below. (Disclaimer: The image is purely for demonstration purposes. It is undecided if the watermark feature will be included in a future version of the component or which watermark images would be used.)The first row shows two indicators that could be used to display that the information is taken from the playing track. The paused indicator on the right might be useful, but I'm not fully convinced about it, since this would mean the watermark would show two different things: the source of the information and the playback state. The second row shows two ideas for a selection indicator (my preference is for the one on the left).

The example uses different colors although it would be hard to chose those automatically to match the users color scheme (read: prevent them from being invisible against the background color). The benefit is that both the text and the watermark are easier to read. Using different colors for different watermarks adds another way to distinguish them except for their shape. This means it is easier to recognize the watermark at a glance. For comparison, here is the same image converted to grayscale:

I'm using this component to show lyrics now. Very nice. One thing that bothers me a bit: when a new song starts playing, the scroll position of the text display stays at whatever it was for the previous song. I'd like it better if the text view scrolls back to top when the contents change.

You actually have confused me here. Which fallback behavior is the one you find confusing? And what do you mean by "selection mode"?

Sorry for confusion! I find both fallbacks confusing - what i meant was that the fall back in "prefer playing track" may represent a behavior many users like so that the irritation for them is not so high because they want it that way and they are aware of it. Whereas the fall back in selection mode (i mean: prefer playing track is unchecked, there is nothing selected and there is playback -> playing track is displayed) at least for me doesn't seem to have any senseful usage. Using two trackdisplays, one for playing track and the other one for selected track and both have fallbacks - that is the highest degree of irritation.

Now i know what you mean! I think a better idea than using central placed watermarks would a sign/symbol in the upper-left corner. I am not a psychologist of perception but i assume that most people when they start regarding a window they put their focus firstly to the corner on left side of the top - just alone because there the text starts. It would be enough to use visual indications just for "prefer playing track" mode so that the existence of an indicator represents the state as "now playing track". In that case an additional pause-sign would be a good idea as then the both signs represents the playback state.

another question: is it possible to hide the timestamps for displaying lyrics?

e.g.

Quote

[ti:take on me][ar:a-ha ][al:][by:¸è´ÊÎá°®][offset:500][00:36]We're talking away[00:39]I don't know what[00:40]I'm to say I'll say it anyway[00:44]Today's another day to find you[00:48]Shying away[00:51]I'll be coming for your love, OK?[00:53][01:33][02:52]Take on me[00:59][01:38][02:57]Take me on[01:04][01:44][03:03][03:20]I'll be gone[01:09][01:48]In a day or two[03:08][03:25]In a day[01:15]So needless to say[01:18]I'm odds and ends[01:20]But I'll be stumbling away[01:24]Slowly learning that life is OK.[01:27]Say after me[01:30]It's no better to be safe than sorry[02:34]Oh the things that you say[02:37]Is it live or[02:39]Just to play my worries away[02:43]You're all the things I've got to remember[02:46]You're shying away[02:49]I'll be coming for you anyway

foosion when calculating the center point (horizontally) can you use the whole width of the panel instead of panel - scrollbar width. I think it would look much better IMO. Right now with a scrollbar the alignment looks weird.

Hi,I wish to display an information text, such as the info I can get from the Allmusic website for instance, everytime I listen to an album. Can I save a text file in my album folder and display it using this component ? Does it work that way ? Or can you suggest another way ?Thanks

Edit: Nevermind this. I think the problem is something to do with the toolbar header.

I was previously using foo_textdisplay in the upper left box beneath the element containing the tabs labeled Info, Console, etc. and it was working perfectly fine using a very small height, just over what is big enough to contain two lines of text. Then, I moved the plugin to where it is now and I've encountered a problem: each time I restart foobar, the height changes despite the face that I've locked the height.

Here is a before picture:

And an after picture:

I can't think of what could cause this. Do you know what might be happening, foosion or anyone else?